ESP8266 Community Forum

I think the problem is with the choice of regulator. The HT7133 is a low power regulator designed to supply currents up to about 30mA. The ESP8266 modules require a powering with something that can supply 500mA peak although the average operating current is about 80mA.

There are a number of regulators that will do the job. I normally use XC6303

davydnorris wrote:Does the ESP-01 board have a LED? Is it on when you turn on the switch?

Would be really good to see the current draw - can you wire a multimeter into the circuit?

Also what is your sketch doing? If you have the wifi turned on then the current draw is quite high

Yes it has a LED. And the ESP-01 wifi is on and sends info to home assistant of the PIR sensor. Let me measure the current draw.

By the way it works fine on a 10000mah power bank which has a current sensor but it is so low that it doesn't measure it. I will measure it with a multimeter when I am back home.

But so far it works on a computer USB and Powerbank. I just couldn't make it work on 18650 Lion battery.

btidey wrote:I think the problem is with the choice of regulator. The HT7133 is a low power regulator designed to supply currents up to about 30mA. The ESP8266 modules require a powering with something that can supply 500mA peak although the average operating current is about 80mA.

There are a number of regulators that will do the job. I normally use XC6303

I have been using HT7133 with the powerbank and the PC usb port and it works fine. Only thing changed is the power source. Is it possible that HT7133 is not able supply enough current with 18650 while it can with PC usb or powerbank?

I choose HT7133 because of Low Dropout so it can operate better with a battery as suggested in this tutorial. https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp8266-voltage-regulator-lipo-and-li-ion-batteries/

Good pick up! You're right - that regulator you're using is way under what you need.